Most computers nowadays have the option to require a password to boot the computer at all, no matter what the operating system. If available, this option is found in the computer's BIOS configuration. What exactly do you want to do, share a computer or just keep people from seeing what's on your computer?

It is a install on a USB harddrive that I am carrying around all the time and I do not want anybody having access to my info if they steal it from me and hook it up. So I need a pwd to protect my puppy session boot on that hard drive.

Make sure you change the root's default password by running the "passwd" command before you reboot (if you forget, well, the default root password is "woofwoof").

Mind you, this only prevents people from *booting up* your puppy. It *does not* prevent people from looking at files in your harddisk. The only way to keep people from looking at your files is, to follow what Lobster said. And keep your sensitive files inside your encrypted save file, not outside it (ie, anything under /mnt/home is outside the savefile - it won't be protected).

EDIT: Let me clarify what I mean. If someone gets your harddisk, and plugs it in into any other working computer, all the contents would be immediately visible. They don't have to boot your puppy to see the contents. That's why the only solution is encrypted save file - as Lobster said.

Sounds like a project. The conceal thing is only a GUI for encfs, here http://www.arg0.net/encfs. Encfs itself is very easy to build with minimal dependency, and we can do the GUI with a combination of gtkdialog and Xdialog to do the same thing._________________Fatdog64, Slacko and Puppeee user. Puppy user since 2.13.
Contributed Fatdog64 packages thread

haven't tried this, but can you remaster the puppy cd from what you have installed, then, making sure that remaster works and has all your info, there is an option to make sure all your personal stuff gets copied in dougal remaster, then format the portable harddrive and reinstall in set your save file to heavy encryption with a password a la lobster's method

Thanks smokey01 for the info - but I have a different idea of implementing it. Rather than having a central location to keep the list of encrypted directories (btw - this is the same approach taken by conceal-gtk as well), I would rather have an ability to encrypt/decrypt directories on demand.

Thanks smokey01 for the info - but I have a different idea of implementing it. Rather than having a central location to keep the list of encrypted directories (btw - this is the same approach taken by conceal-gtk as well), I would rather have an ability to encrypt/decrypt directories on demand.

Yes, but that's not what I mean. Perhaps I don't say it clearly enough.

I would like to be able to go to any folder in Rox, right-click it, and choose "encrypt" from the popup menu. I will be asked for a password - and after that my folder will be encrypted. Similar functionalities for "open encrypted folder" and "close encrypted folder". Of course, once I'm tired with this stuff, I can always choose "decrypt" and remove all encryption, turning it back to a normal folder.

I've completed some scripts to do exactly that - I just need to clean it up and make it a little bit prettier. It depends only on EncFS (just like the conceal stuff) and Xdialog - a whooping 12K uncompressed no python stuff.